We were lucky enough to see most of them, some evaded us - yes I'm looking at you Google Glass (although we should have ours in January). We haven't included Google Glass in our list though, because its not on general release and we haven't seen it either !
So what made our list ?!
OUYA
The +Kickstarter Android micro console went from hero to (almost) zero and back again in the space of a year. +Julie Uhrman seemed to stumble from one crisis to another, the media seemed to give +OUYA a bit of a kicking at the start as well. So now you are wondering why we have selected it as one of our top 5 gadgets for 2013. Well that's simple, its opened up the market for Android, easy to develop for micro consoles - the OUYA was followed by an announced Game Stick, which has had troubles all of its own too, Mad Katz also followed.
Despite the problems OUYA had, they have a very good beta in the external storage feature that everyone wanted so badly. Games seem to be coming quicker and thicker now, some gems to be had, and Julie has quit banging the same drum every 10 mins. Maybe they sacked their rubbish PR department.
+XBMC support was the biggest draw for me personally, and its pleasing to see it running so so well too. Initial issues were resolved quite quickly and there isn't much the console cant do that you can do on the PC version, its fast and nimble. Hardware decoding was added too in the OUYA release.
+Plex added their app to the OUYA store, that was warmly welcomed by the OUYA community. Firmware is updated with a few nice touches regularly so someone is listening to feed back somewhere.
You can see all our OUYA coverage in our blog here. Its also worth following our contributor +James Mapley who always has something interesting to post about OUYA.
Now some of our regular readers are sitting there right now thinking, hey IHAG - you gave the +Nexus 5 a bit of a kicking. Yes, that's true we did, and you can read all about it here.
So why on earth would it make the list, that's simple. Putting the +Motorola Mobility Moto G to one side, its the best value Android you can get. Sure it has a few short comings, but its not trying to be a flagship phone (or a budget phone for emerging markets or removal of the second user market like the Moto G), its has plenty of the features, +Google did a great job with Kit Kat - improvements to Google Now are spot on.
+LG Electronics made a smaller brother of the superb LG G2, and that's maybe one of the best phones on the market right now too. Having a scaled down G2 is no bad thing.
For almost half the cost of the HTC One, Sony Z1 or Samsung S4, you do get a handset pretty close to those specs of the OEM flagships, and you can sell on pretty easy when the next hardware refresh comes along 12 months later. Only question is, who makes the next 2 Nexus devices ?!
Yes, +Sony have returned to form with the +Sony PlayStation 4 - the PS3 still managed to outsell the Xbox 360 worldwide over the course of its life, but Sony lost the battle early on which hurt its reputation and ability to compete - rest on its laurels ?! Sony did just that after the success of the PS2.
Lesson learned, the Japanese company went back to the drawing board. This time, no custom hardware, no crazy difficult to learn SDK and most of all a good message.
2013 saw Sony come out swinging, the anticipation for the device grew - Sony courted the indie devs - the message Sony gave out was consistent and clear. Our console is for gaming, and sharing games will be easy. Microsoft didn't seem to like playing so nice, and constantly kicked themselves in the bollocks. quite the opposite to Sony.
The console is sleek, the UI is so much better than the PS3 XMB, and cross chat / game chat is great (to have working at long last). Sharing live footage is fun, the console is small, much improved dualshock - just all round improvement.
Lets hope this turns Sony around after the terrible few years they have had. I absolutely love the PS4 - I think you will too.
Google's streaming device took everyone by surprise earlier this year, and only recently have we seen more apps added to the library of 3 that the device was released with - Netflix, You Tube, Google services such as Google Music and TV then in December joined by +VEVO , Plex and Red Bull TV to name a few which now really have start to show what Chromecast can do.
Mountain View have a much firmer grip on this than the Android OS, so don't expect 100 best farts app to be working with Chromecast anytime soon, which is a good thing of course.
$35 (£22) really is an amazing price but I can help but wonder what will become of Google TV in the long run, seems to be forgotten. Anyway, check out what we have written about Chromecast on our blog, here. Its so simple to use, if you're in the UK import one, if you're in the US lucky you !
Another darling of +Kickstarter that really has come on leaps and bounds, it ticks all the big boxes that +Sony and +Samsung Mobile seemed to have missed with their smartwatch efforts this year. Sony built a decent effort but with plenty of draw backs and corners cut, Samsung made a feature rich watch that needs power every 10 mins and limited in what handsets it plays nice with.
A long battery life, a screen while not producing colour of Josephs coat, but more like a Kindle paper screen - it still manages to be feature rich, and displays all the important information you want. Pebble just announced a new +Pebble Store which means the demand is healthy enough for them to warrant making one. Our advice is couple Pebble with something like Tasker, then you can control notifications a little easier by turning off sync at bed time for example.
Compatible with pretty much all Android devices. Bluetooth technology allows simple pairing with your handset (yes even Apple too), so you can easily view text messages and other notifications, accept or decline incoming calls, control your music and more. Downloadable watch faces and apps let you personalize your watch. The E-paper display ensures a clear view even when you're outdoors, and the waterproof design enables use while swimming or washing dishes (not that we do that often - our gadget of 1985 takes care of that).The only gripes are the price, its a little expensive and its not pretty - fugly is sometimes mentioned but I wouldn't go that far. If you can over look those two then you really have a wonderful watch that produces the best experience from a Smartwatch 1.0.
Watch out as +Laurent Le Pen is bringing +Omate TrueSmart to backers as we type, and the Smartwatch 2.0 platform really is going to push the boundary of smart watches. Early reaction is mostly positive, maybe Pebble are taking note.
